


The Kick

by VanillaMostly



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Fluff and Humor, Friendship, Gen, Headcanon, Next Generation
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-12
Updated: 2021-02-12
Packaged: 2021-03-18 08:20:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,645
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29365377
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/VanillaMostly/pseuds/VanillaMostly
Summary: Beat him on every test, he said.Rose had always been a Daddy’s girl.
Relationships: Scorpius Malfoy & Rose Weasley, Scorpius Malfoy/Rose Weasley
Comments: 8
Kudos: 35





	The Kick

**Author's Note:**

> Ha, right after I said I couldn’t write a funny Next Gen fic, out came this. 
> 
> Scorose will always be one of my OTPs. Haha, thanks a lot Ron!

  
  
  


Rose had always been a Daddy’s girl. She loved her mother dearly, of course, but Dad was the one who always made her laugh, Dad was the one who taught her Quidditch, and whenever her mother lectured her for forgetting to clean the dishes or leaving dirty laundry all over her bedroom floor, Dad was always the one who came to her rescue.

Which was why she felt like the most horrid failure in the world when the first exam marks of the year came out.

Not because she hadn’t been able to follow in Hermione’s footsteps to score a perfect mark (she didn’t even score _close_ to perfect.)

No, because she happened to tie with Scorpius Malfoy!

The boy her father had told her to “beat on every test.”

Rose could only picture the disappointment on her father’s face. The thought made her eyes sting; she knew tears were only seconds away, but she was still sitting in the middle of class and she was NOT about to cry in front of everyone. She looked over at the quiet blonde boy sitting to her left, still reviewing his exam paper - the same one she had sneaked a good look at moments before - and saw he was smiling a tiny smile to himself, looking pleased. And her tears were suddenly stilled by a rush of _anger._

Rose aimed a kick at the boy’s shin.

“Ow!” he cried, and turned to stare at her aghast.

Professor Grant looked over at once. “Mr Malfoy? What’s going on?” She was a tall witch with sharp blue eyes; her gaze flitted to Rose, who stared down at her paper quickly - but not quickly enough. “Is Miss Weasley bothering you?” She sounded stern, not that much unlike Rose’s mother when Rose got in trouble.

Rose could feel her ears burning and knew her face was roughly the same shade of her hair. She regretted kicking Malfoy now, but it was obviously too late - he was going to tell, and Professor Grant was going to dock points from Gryffindor or worse, give her _detention_! Tears threatened to leak again.

But all Malfoy said was, “No, Professor. I hit my foot against the desk.”

There was a scattering of laughter from the other students. Rose could feel Professor Grant still looking at her, but a moment later she said, “Alright then,” and turned to move on to their new Transfiguration lesson of the day.

Rose sneaked another glance at the boy on her left. He was bent over his parchment, quill in hand, studiously taking notes from what Professor Grant was saying. It was like nothing had happened.

Rose tried to focus on her own notes, but it was difficult; she couldn’t stop feeling guilty and ashamed of her behavior. She knew it wasn’t Scorpius Malfoy’s fault that they had tied on their exam. If anything, it was her fault for not studying harder and scoring higher. Part of her was more surprised than anything that Scorpius had _not_ ratted her out. From the way her dad spoke about him and his dad, she’d thought Scorpius would be awful. 

Only it turned out _she_ was the awful one.

It did not make her feel much better.

After class, Rose waved Albus off, telling him to go on ahead with their other friends. She purposefully took as long of a time possible packing up her bag. When the crowd of students thinned out - and Professor Grant had retreated to her office - she grabbed Scorpius’s arm just as he was about to follow his group of friends into the corridor.

“Ow,” said Scorpius for the second time that day. He turned to look at Rose with some apprehension. Maybe he thought she was here to kick him again.

“Sorry,” Rose said quickly, dropping his arm. “I- I mean, not just for this. I’m sorry for before.”

She thought he would be annoyed, but Scorpius just looked a little confused. “Oh, it’s fine. You seemed upset, that’s all.”

“Well… I was,” Rose admitted. She sighed glumly. “I didn’t score as well as I wanted to.”

“But it’s only the first exam. You’ll have lots of chances to do better.”

Rose nodded, biting her lip. Again she wondered why Scorpius Malfoy was so _nice._ Was her dad wrong about him?

“What sweets do you like?” she asked suddenly, an idea forming.

Scorpius blinked, a little taken aback at the change in subject. “Pretty much anything,” said Scorpius. “Except mint. It tastes like toothpaste.”

Rose was again surprised by Scorpius Malfoy. “ _Right?_ I hate it too. My family thinks I’m weird though.” She grinned at Scorpius, who returned a tentative smile. “Anyway,” Rose said, “you ever try Fizzing Whizzbees or Honeyduke’s chocolate?”

He shook his head.

“Then come!” She grabbed his arm again - this time less forcefully - and took him down the hall.

“Wait…” Scorpius followed her, matching her pace, but his steps slowed and he started to resist when he realized where they were going. “You’re taking me to the Gryffindor-”

“Come on,” Rose said impatiently, giving his arm a tug. “We better hurry if we don’t want to be late for Charms.”

She half-dragged him to the portrait of the Fat Lady. She had to bang on the portrait a few times to get the Fat Lady to appear, which she did, looking quite affronted. 

“You Weasleys, I swear!” she cried. “Each generation of you with worse and worse manners-” She paused; Rose got the sense that Scorpius was trying to maneuver out of sight, but her firm grasp on his wrist prevented him from getting far. “Who’s this? He’s not in my house. Why, he’s a Slytherin!”

“Oh right,” said Rose hurriedly, “Scorpius, can you cover your ears?” She didn’t bother to see if he did as she declared, “Aardvark,” and the Fat Lady, giving her a somewhat scandalized look, reluctantly swung open.

They were in-between classes, so there weren’t many people inside, just several senior students studying by the fireplace who glanced over when they entered. Rose didn’t pay them attention; she made a beeline for the dormitory entrance, still holding onto Scorpius’s wrist. It was at this point that Scorpius said, “ _Weasley!_ ” The note of panic in his voice got Rose to pause.

“Yeah?”

“Um…” His pale cheeks flushed pink. “I can’t go up _there._ ”

She frowned, looking from him to the dormitory, then understanding dawned. “Okay,” she said, not very much bothered, “I’ll be back - you wait here! Promise me you’ll wait, okay?”

Scorpius looked like he wanted to say something, but he just gave a nervous nod in the end. Satisfied, Rose ran up the stairs.

When she returned - cradling sweets under her robes, nearly bursting with excitement to show Scorpius - her run skidded to a stop when she saw that Scorpius was not alone now.

Victoire Weasley was talking to him, arms crossed. As Rose got closer, she didn’t really hear what her cousin was saying - she just saw that Scorpius had his eyes downcast, his hands held tightly at his sides, and he looked like he was about to cry.

For the second time that day, a rush of anger coursed through Rose.

Only this time the target of her anger changed.

She didn’t aim a kick at Victoire, but she did charge towards Victoire and give her a shove. Her cousin was about a full head taller than Rose but she was caught unaware. She stumbled briefly before steadying herself, her mouth opened wide in an _O_ shape of shock.

“Rosie! What was _that_ for?” 

“You made my friend cry!”

Rose didn’t stop to mull over the irony that in less than a few hours, Scorpius Malfoy had gone from archenemy to friend in her mind.

Scorpius objected, “I didn’t _cry_ -” while Victoire, tossing her beautiful hair indignantly, retorted, “Your _friend?_ Rosie, he’s a Malfoy!”

Rose had moved herself in front of Scorpius, arm held out protectively as she glared up at her cousin. “So what? He’s my friend and you will be nice to him.”

Victoire looked at Rose as if she was crazy, but when it became obvious that Rose was dead serious, Victoire looked a little mollified.

“I wasn’t being _rude_ to him or anything,” said Victoire, shaking her head, “I was just asking him how he got in here. I thought he stole our password or something.”

“Well he didn’t! I brought him in.” Rose stuck out her chin.

“Fine… I guess I was wrong,” said Victoire. As she glanced from one fired-up redhead to one frightened blonde, Victoire’s expression softened to one of mild amusement. “Get on then, the two of you. Go have fun.” She waved her fingers at them airily and sauntered away.

Rose grabbed Scorpius’s arm - she was really doing that quite frequently now, and Scorpius somehow continued to let her - and led him to an empty spot of cushions in the corner. “Ta-dah!” Rose said happily, dropping sweets into his lap. “Told you I’d have them!” 

Scorpius didn’t mention that he had never doubted she wouldn’t. He looked down at the sweets, then at Rose. Rose’s smile faltered. “What? Don’t you wanna try one?”

“Am I really your friend?” Scorpius asked.

It was Rose’s turn to look confused. “Of course you are. Why would I give you these if we weren’t friends?”

She seemed to forget herself that her original intention was to apologize for kicking him, and to thank him for not ratting her out to the teacher.

“Um… then, thanks,” Scorpius said. He wore the same tiny smile he had when looking at his exam paper earlier that day. Under Rose’s expectant stare, he chose a piece of Honeyduke’s chocolate. Rose did as well.

The two of them grinned at each other with chocolate-stained teeth.

Then-

“ _Merlin’s great white underpants!”_ Rose swore. “We’re late for Charms!”

  
  



End file.
